This Nevadan explains not volunteering

09:23 AM PT, Apr 16 2007

In another dubious achievement, Nevada citizens have the lowest percentage of volunteer rates in the country; we sit at the bottom of a new ranking of all the 50 States. In Utah (the highest ranked State) about 45.9% of residents do some sort of volunteer work in their communities whereas in Nevada that number rests at 17.5%. And, unlike our booming economy in Nevada, we are joined in the bottom 5 by states like Mississippi and Louisiana where dealing with natural disaster has probably impacted the ability of people there to volunteer. We are also the worst state, by far, even among the bottom 5; every single one of the other states, at least, broke 20% meaning 1 in 5 people doing some sort of volunteer work.

So, what is wrong with the people in Nevada? In part, I think the problem is in the infrastructure. I am among the massive majority of people in Nevada who do no volunteer work at all. Here is my story and excuse; take what follows for the personal anecdote that it is. When I lived in Minnesota (number 3 on the new list of states with 40.4% of residents volunteering) in the 90's, there were organizations all over the state that were reaching out looking for volunteers in every imaginable area. I was spoiled on that Minnesota model. In Minnesota I could have called a toll free number, listed my interests and received in exchange a list of organizations that I could volunteer at. So, I expected volunteering would be an easy thing to arrange whenever I was ready to do it.

Full disclosure: I didn't actually do any volunteer work in Minnesota either. I was too self involved with graduate school, work and life. But I remember the culture of volunteering in Minnesota and while living there made a promise to myself that one day, when I had more time, I would do my share (and then some) of volunteer work. Of course, that day never seems to come in life until something happens. What happened in my case was an encounter with new age musician John Tesh. For a story in 2005, an editor assigned me to live the "Tesh Life" by following Tesh's advice on diet, exercise and life practices. At the end, I had not changed all that much (or, at all) but I did feel it was past time for me to make good on my promise to volunteer. Tesh is big on volunteering.

My phone calls in 2005 to places like the Clark County public library, UNLV and retirement homes in the Vegas area were met with total confusion. Don't get me wrong, in Nevada you can easily volunteer for the most obvious things. You can give out food on Thanksgiving to the homeless, or work in a pet sanctuary cleaning feces, etc. But I wanted to volunteer in an area closer to my interests, and one that allowed me to use the skills I've developed in life to help others. In general, I wanted to work in any area connected to literacy. I wanted to tutor disadvantaged students, I wanted to be a reader of books for seniors or help new graduates create their first resumes or even help people find things at the library. This would be easy to do in Minnesota. Not in Nevada.

Conversations with a half dozen people in various positions at UNLV about my attempt to volunteer as a tutor got no further than a promise of a return call about my "unusual" request. That conversation was in 2005 and no one has called back yet. None of the retirement homes I called used volunteers for reading or writing. The library told me I could come every week and shelve the paperback books (volunteers weren't trusted to return hardbacks to the shelves). I turned down that opportunity. A bolt of inspiration hit at one point and I called around to homeless shelters and programs asking if I could help their clients with paperwork or to create resumes. No such opportunity existed, I was told. Trying to find a volunteer job in Nevada was proving much harder than searching for an actual paid job here. In fact, I was often told that people were paid to do the tasks I wanted to volunteer at. And, so now we are in 2007 and I sit ready to volunteer for any literacy connected cause in Nevada and still not quite sure how to make that happen.

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